Abstract A subsurface oxygen minimum layer (OML) in intermediate water is identified and characterized in Rivers Inlet, a fjord on British Columbia’s central coast, using data from 1998 to 2018. The OML was observed in most years from May to September and was most persistent at the middle and head of the fjord. The Rivers Inlet OML develops in three stages: (i) in early spring, the cessation of winter

Structures installed to modify hydrology in waterways such as culverts can cause fragmentation across intertidal and subtidal areas, leading to increased habitat patchiness of previous interconnected habitats. This study aimed to understand the potential impacts of a 268-m culvert on habitat parameters in a large tidal bay and a coastal lagoon in Southern California. We analyzed key habitat characteristics

The macroecological variable of patchiness (Lloyd’s Ip index of patchiness, P) has recently been shown to be related inter- and intraspecifically to those of abundance (numbers m−2, A), and occupancy (% occurrence in samples, O) in lower latitude seagrass macrofaunas. For the first time in higher latitudes, intraspecific relationships between three spatial variables were investigated in the intertidal

Understanding fish-habitat associations and distributions are important for making informed management decisions relevant to habitat restoration and species recovery. Chinook salmon, in particular, rely heavily on estuaries, and restoring these habitats has become an important component of recovery plans for threatened populations. Information regarding general distribution patterns, while often lacking

Sea-level rise is impacting the longest undeveloped stretch of coastline in the contiguous United States: The Florida Big Bend. Due to its low elevation and a higher-than-global-average local rate of sea-level rise, the region is losing coastal forest to encroaching marsh at an unprecedented rate. Previous research found a rate of forest-to-marsh conversion of up to 1.2 km2 year−1 during the nineteenth

Estuaries act as conduits for and modifiers of carbon delivery from watersheds to the coastal ocean. Here we hypothesize that a long residence time estuary receiving high nutrient and humic-rich dissolved organic carbon (DOC) loads from the watershed will efficiently produce and trap autochthonous carbon while conservatively transporting watershed-derived DOC to the coastal ocean. We assessed temporal

Animal groups are known to exhibit collective behaviours that allow for effective responses to predators and environmental factors. Habitats with high levels of structural complexity have been shown to influence the collective tendencies of these animal aggregations. However, the effect of anthropogenically induced habitat complexity on collective tendency is still unknown. We examined the effect of

Evidence for relative sea-level rise in the Mullica River-Great Bay, a relatively undisturbed watershed in southern New Jersey, stretches over hundreds of years. The increase in global sea-level rise in the region is enhanced by subsidence and results in rates that are approximately double the global average. In recent decades, the occurrence of “ghost forests,” standing dead forests, especially of

A correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00964-9

Upper estuarine segments are characterized by mixing of diverse source waters with a variety of constituents that may influence water clarity (e.g., algae, inorganic particulates, dissolved color). We measured turbidity, total suspended solids (TSS), chlorophyll-a (CHLa), dissolved organic carbon (DOC), and chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) in upper segments of the James and York Estuaries

The North River estuary (Massachusetts, USA) is a tidal marsh creek network where tidal dispersion processes dominate the salt balance. A field study using moorings, shipboard measurements, and drone surveys was conducted to characterize and quantify tidal trapping due to tributary creeks. During flood tide, saltwater propagates up the main channel and gets “trapped” in the creeks. The creeks inherit

Stressful conditions, such as mechanical damage, can significantly compromise the survival of algal beds by reducing their biomass, reproductive output, and even altering their production of defensive chemical compounds. In the present work, the effect of different intensities of trampling (no trampling, low and high trampling intensities) on reproduction, morphology, and phenolic content of Sargassum

The three contiguous National Estuary Programs of southwest Florida, along with partners from six coastal counties, have developed a tidal creek water quality assessment framework to help prioritize natural resource investigations across a large population of tidal creeks between Tampa Bay and Estero Bay, Florida. The assessment framework is based on outcomes of a multidisciplinary study and includes

In coastal wetlands, one of the most striking examples of climate change is the poleward range expansion of mangrove forests in response to warming winters. In North America, the Cedar Key region has often been considered the range limit for mangroves along the western coast of Florida (USA). However, within the past several decades, robust stands of Avicennia germinans and Rhizophora mangle have been

Knowledge of the ecological mechanisms that influence recovery after oil spills is needed to better manage, mitigate, and restore impacted ecosystems, but the species interactions responsible for these mechanisms are poorly known. Here, we report on a species interaction in the aftermath of the Deepwater Horizon (DwH) oil spill that may facilitate biotic recovery. Although macroinfauna were extirpated

Tracking the effects of habitat attributes on species distribution is pivotal to the understanding of community assembly across space and time. We used the elements of metacommunity (EMS), which evaluates coherence, turnover, and boundary clumping of species, to access the spatial patterns of nematodes from three coastal habitats with increasing degree to wave exposure, namely, mangroves, estuarine

Seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marshes are critical coastal habitats that support high densities of juvenile fish and invertebrates. Yet which species are enhanced through these nursery habitats, and to what degree, remains largely unquantified. Densities of young-of-year fish and invertebrates in seagrasses, oyster reefs, and salt marsh edges as well as in paired adjacent unstructured habitats

Over the last 20 years, innovations have led to the development of exciting new technologies and novel applications of established technologies, collectively increasing the scale, scope, and quality of research possible in tidal marsh systems. Thus, ecological research on marshes is being revolutionized, in the same way as ecological research more generally, by the availability of new tools and analytical

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00922-5

Small variations in environmental parameters can substantially alter species composition, but the extent to which different species respond to these changes remains obscure. A synoptic survey of seagrass-associated faunal communities was performed across the Gulf of Mexico using otter trawls coupled with seagrass and water quality assessments. The abundance of eight central seagrass inhabitants, representing

Coastal wetlands provide important ecosystem services, such as carbon and nitrogen sequestration and flood protection, but are vulnerable to increasing sea levels. We examined the vulnerability of coastal wetlands to rising sea levels using radioisotopes (210Pb and 137Cs) to estimate long-term (~100 years) soil accretion rates. We also estimated carbon and nitrogen accumulation rates. We collected

Suspended-sediment flux at the ocean boundary of the San Francisco Estuary—the Golden Gate—was measured over a tidal cycle following peak watershed runoff from storms to the estuary in two successive years to investigate sediment transport through the estuary. Observations were repeated during low-runoff conditions, for a total of three field campaigns. Boat-based measurements of velocity and acoustic

Restored oyster reefs enhance commercial harvests and ecosystem services in coastal environments. Spatial and temporal changes in habitat availability can affect reef persistence and restoration benefits, and understanding how construction and location of a restored habitat influence its persistence over time is key to optimizing restoration efforts. The short-term persistence of six subtidal restored

Marine fish and shrimp species are often dependent on estuarine habitats for juvenile or other early life stages, yet the effect of estuarine habitat availability has rarely been linked to the offshore, marine distribution of species. Penaeid shrimp are an estuary-dependent taxa that have global economic importance and are frequently cited as prey of fish. Species distribution models were developed

Globally, habitat loss in coastal marine systems is a major driver of species decline, and estuaries are particularly susceptible to loss. Along the United States Pacific coast, monospecific eelgrass (Zostera marina) beds form the major estuarine vegetated habitat. In Morro Bay, California, eelgrass experienced an unprecedented decline of > 95%, from 139 ha in 2007 to < 6 ha by 2017. Fish populations

Nitrate (NO3–) enrichment in rivers over the last four decades has potentially shifted how coastal ecosystems process nitrogen (N). Shifts in N dynamics may be particularly significant in coastal deltaic floodplains when sediments are inundated during river flood stage as this may change the fate of NO3– transported to the coastal ocean. We evaluated the relative importance of denitrification, dissimilative

It is still common practice in Europe to dike salt marshes for agricultural use. This impacts both the vegetation and physical environment of the marsh. We studied the plant community, environmental conditions, and determined correlations between vegetation cover and diversity with environmental factors on an enclosed marsh, which has been behind a dike since 1890. Vegetation data from both salt marshes

Estuaries are amongst the most productive ecosystems worldwide and provide nursery habitat for fish species of marine and freshwater origin; however, the distribution and community structure of fishes within freshwater-dominated coastal system is limited. This study presents an overview of the temporal and spatial patterns in the abundance, diversity and distribution of fishes along a river-estuarine

Intertidal oyster reefs are typically restored to offset the loss of reef-associated ecosystem services (e.g., improved water quality, shoreline stabilization, and fish habitat), but the scale of enhanced services is predicated on the health and growth of the restored reef. Previous work on young (<15 years) restored reefs showed the highest growth rates along the sides of reefs where they are aerially

Tidal freshwater forested wetlands (TFFWs) commonly occur along coastal rivers; however, sea level rise and changes to river discharge may impact these wetlands. Information that characterizes the hydrology and salinity regime of the TFFW zone is needed to assess risk and predict future viability. A combination of field data and modeling were used to characterize TFFW hydrology, salinity, and vegetation

Coastal nutrient pollution is an ever-present threat to estuaries worldwide. Benthic denitrification has been identified as a crucial ecosystem service to help mitigate increasing N loads to the coast. However, the controls on denitrification in low-nutrient systems are not well constrained and are likely different to those in more widely studied eutrophic systems. This study aims to identify the specific

Comprehensive understanding and quantification of different aspects of estuarine carbon (C) cycle are essential to decipher regional and global changes. Here, premonsoon C biogeochemistry of two contrasting estuarine systems (Hooghly - anthropogenically influenced and Sundarbans - mangrove dominated) located in the deltaic region of Ganges, India, has been investigated. The Hooghly showed sharper salinity

Fisheries and urban marine ecology meet within the world’s densely populated estuaries and coasts, where the imperative of dredging, construction and catchment modification occurs alongside the socio-economic characteristics of urban communities. Estuarine fisheries in urban areas have often shifted away from commercial harvest towards recreational fishing, fuelled by a diverse range of motivational

Mechanisms driving the consumption and transport of tidal marsh nutrients and energy by fishes are of key interest in the San Francisco Estuary, CA, USA. By combining multiple data sources (gill-net catches, gut contents, channel morphology, tides), we modeled spatial and temporal patterns of fish abundance and gut fullness across a tidal marsh elevation gradient. Channel depth, microhabitat, and tide

Many flatfish species utilize coastal areas during at least one of their life-history stages. Estuaries on the eastern US Atlantic coast provide important settlement and nursery habitat for flatfishes. Small tidal creeks serve as transition zones between upland and estuarine environments and are a consistent settlement and nursery habitat for flatfish. Flatfish habitat use in Wylly Creek, a southeastern

Understanding the threat to ecosystems from excess nitrogen in coastal waters is a priority issue in scientific research and natural resource management. Previous field studies have demonstrated that high nitrogen loading can decrease the health and resiliency of salt marshes through shifting biomass allocation, increasing decomposition, and causing creek bank instability, all of which can lead to

The marsh-mangrove ecotone along the southeastern US Atlantic coast occurs in northeast Florida within the Guana-Tolomato-Matanzas (GTM) estuary, where emergent vegetation transitions from marsh-dominated in the north to mangrove-dominated in the south. Dominant vegetation type has been shown to influence creek bank slope, nekton access to refuge, predation risk, and access to food. The northward distribution

When restoring coastal wetlands, approaches can vary in construction technique, planting strategy, and site placement within an anthropogenically altered landscape comprising both relict wetlands and developed habitat. Constructed marshes are often composed of discrete terraces or mounds formed with excavated sediments, or beneficial uses (BU) dredge material can be used to fill continuous areas to

The diamondback terrapin (Malaclemys terrapin) is a small estuarine turtle distributed along the Atlantic and Gulf Coasts of the USA that is threatened by drowning in crab pots, road mortality, exploitation in the pet trade, and habitat loss. Little is known about the movement patterns and home ranges of these turtles, particularly along the U.S. Gulf of Mexico coast. Satellite tags were deployed on

Flood mitigation and protection of coastal infrastructure are key elements of coastal management decisions. Similarly, regulating and provisioning roles of coastal habitats have increasingly prompted policy makers to consider the value of ecosystem goods and services in these same decisions, broadly defined as “the benefits people obtain from ecosystems.” We applied these principles to a study at three

Seagrasses are productive habitats that support diverse communities of economically and ecologically important fishes and macroinvertebrates. However, most seagrass faunal assessments are conducted only during daylight hours. Here, we documented diel patterns in seagrass-associated fish and macroinvertebrate community structure in seagrass near Seahorse Key, Florida (USA). Artificial light is prevalent

Grazing by all members of an herbivore community can act to structure the ecosystems they feed on. The outcome of this grazing pressure on the plant community also depends on the interaction between different herbivore groups that are present. We carried out a three-month multi-level field exclusion experiment to understand how different groups of herbivores act both individually and interactively

Herbivory is a key structuring force that can have negative, positive, or mixed impacts on seagrasses. The identity and abundance of herbivores, as well environmental conditions such as solar insulation, can influence the impacts of herbivory. To understand the impact of herbivores on turtlegrass in warm, temperate St. Joseph Bay (SJB) in the northeastern Gulf of Mexico, we estimated densities of the

Tidal marshes (including saltmarshes) provide remarkable value for many social (cultural, recreational) and environmental (fish production, water quality, shoreline protection, carbon sequestration) services. However, their extent, condition, and capacity to support these services are threatened by human development expansion, invasive species, erosion, altered hydrology and connectivity, and climate

Loss of estuarine and coastal habitats worldwide has reduced nursery habitat and function for diverse fishes, including juvenile Chinook salmon (Oncorhynchus tshawytscha). Underutilized off-channel habitats such as flooded rice fields and managed ponds present opportunities for improving rearing conditions and increasing habitat diversity along migratory corridors. While experiments in rice fields

Climate change is altering naturally fluctuating environmental conditions in coastal and estuarine ecosystems across the globe. Departures from long-term averages and ranges of environmental variables are increasingly being observed as directional changes [e.g., rising sea levels, sea surface temperatures (SST)] and less predictable periodic cycles (e.g., Atlantic or Pacific decadal oscillations) and

To assess effects of N loads, season, and down-estuary transit on estuarine concentrations of nitrate (NO3), ammonium (NH4), dissolved organic nitrogen (DON), and total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), we sampled three estuaries within Waquoit Bay, MA (USA), subject to different N loads, from spring to fall, at nine stations spanning the salinity range. Conventional statistical analysis on the basis of entire

Mangroves and salt marshes are considered important habitats for a diversity of fishery and other species. One of the key presumed values of these systems is their role in fuelling aquatic food webs that support many fisheries species. The mangrove-salt marsh ecotone along the NE Atlantic coast of Florida provides a natural experiment to examine the relative importance of mangrove and marsh production

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00901-w

To determine whether mangrove soil accretion can keep up with increasing rates of sea level rise, we modeled the theoretical, steady-state (i.e., excluding hurricane impacts) limits to vertical soil accretion in riverine mangrove forests on the southwest coast of Florida, USA. We measured dry bulk density (BD) and loss on ignition (LOI) from mangrove soils collected over a period of 12 years along

This study investigated the distribution and origin of organic carbon (OC) and aliphatic hydrocarbons (AHs) in sand (≥ 63 μm) and mud (< 63 μm) fractions of the Pina Sound (NE Brazil). Sedimentary OC and AHs were characterized using elemental [(C/N)a ratio], isotopic (δ13C), and molecular (AHs diagnostic ratio) proxies. On a dry weight basis, the average proportions of OC and AH contents in the mud

Seagrass restoration can help reverse global meadow loss and restore ecosystem services, including habitat provision for commercial fish and shellfish, carbon sequestration, and improved water quality. However, restoration projects are generally expensive, and site selection remains a challenge due to uncertainty about how environmental variables affect the survival and spread of seedlings. Long-term

Susan Lynn Williams (1951–2018) was an exceptional marine ecologist whose research focused broadly on the ecology of benthic nearshore environments dominated by seagrasses, seaweeds, and coral reefs. She took an empirical approach founded in techniques of physiological ecology. Susan was committed to applying her research results to ocean management through outreach to decision-makers and resource

Given recent trends of warming water temperatures and shifting fish distributions, detecting range expansion is important for resource management and planning. The subtropical common snook Centropomus undecimalis (hereafter referred to as snook) is an estuarine species that historically extended from the tropics to southern portions of Florida and Texas, but this range has been expanding for the past

Microphytobenthos (MPB) plays an integral role in contributing to the productivity and sustenance of shallow marine ecosystem. MPB forms an integral component in the trophic structure of mangrove forest and its biogeochemistry. Microphytobenthos from three selected mangrove ecosystems (S1, Kannur; S2, Kochi and S3, Kollam) along the southwest coast of India was studied in detail for 1 year (2018–2019)

A Correction to this paper has been published: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12237-021-00897-3

Temperatures are increasing globally and causing species-specific geographic range expansions. In the Gulf of Mexico, mangroves are encroaching regions historically dominated by temperate salt marshes, changing animal communities and nutrient cycling in the intertidal zone. Marine systems are highly connected; therefore, we expect that changes in the intertidal will alter functions of adjacent subtidal

The Salish Sea, spanning Washington State and British Columbia, receives relatively low pH water from upwelling in the northeast Pacific Ocean and the acidity of bottom water increases within the sea, particularly in winter. In order to better understand the processes that lead to bottom water acidification in this region, I quantified the sources of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) and alkalinity

Chesapeake Bay has a long history of nutrient pollution resulting in degraded water quality. However, we report improvements in chlorophyll a in surface waters and dissolved oxygen in bottom waters at one of three estuarine stations in the Choptank tributary of Chesapeake Bay. We updated a previous nutrient budget for the estuary constructed for reference year 1998 using rates of atmospheric deposition